Take Two

Game two of the 2010 season had a sense of deja vu about it. Last blog, I mentioned how the starters carried the load and the bench didn’t amount to much. Well, rinse, swish, repeat. Game two was more of the same, not that Coach Agler promised much more in the Sparks aftergame press conference. He needs a good stretch with no games to start fully integrating the newcomers to the point that they are productive and he isn’t willing to take losses while doing this. So it was another busy game for the starters.

Tonight was all about Swin Cash. If last game she had the “eye of the tiger,” than tonight was “eye of the tiger times three!” There were moments during the game when it just seemed like Swin was WILLING the team to victory. She provided the energy for a team that was otherwise a bit sluggish, even though the early pass was blistering. And her 24 points led the team and the game!

With the Lynx up early in the game, I turned to my partner, Vic, and told him not to worry. If we can keep it close, the book on the Lynx is that they always seem to fold a bit in the 4th quarter. If we are within single digits by the start of the 4th, we should be able to pull out the victory. I have seen this happen time and time again with the Lynx. And it doesn’t seem to matter what the player composition is either. Very strange. Maybe it is just a mindset that, once you think this as a player, you start to make it come true. So you push a little harder if you are a Lynx player and if you are the opposition, you play a bit harder because they are “vulnerable” in the 4th. Round ball psychology 101.

LJ was “quiet” tonight, if you can call an 18 point 8 rebound game quiet. But for LJ, that is quiet. Her shot was just a touch off for most of the game. Just hitting the back of the rim. Inches separating miss from swish. Some games you just don’t have it locked in. But LJ hustled on the boards, had a handful with Nicky Anosike all night long, and provided a text book, highlight reel block of Charde Houston that left her with disbelief etched all over her face.

Camille found her scoring tonight, matching LJs 18 and continuing to be a force all over the court! Sue and T gave us solid guard play with 8 and 9 respectively.

The Lynx were sagging into the paint all night and a lot of the offense struggled when the players were trying to pass into the lane to LJ or other post players. As Kevin Pelton said in the Preview article on storm.wnba.com, the Lynx have a lot of length and quickness in the paint, so trying to send in a perfect pass was doomed to fail quite a bit. The team finally realized this and started to rotate the ball around the perimeter before sending it in to the paint, looking for lanes. There was also more penetration by the guards, looking for the defensive help and the free player that always results.

Monica Wright, the Lynx’s first round pick this year, is the real deal. She reminds me a LOT of Cappie Pondexter when she first came into the league. Her speed made a very good defender in T Wright look a little old and slow. That doesn’t happen very often. And Monica could make her shot fall with seeming ease as all great shooters are wont to do. I don’t know how you split up the shots when Seimone gets back in the line-up, but the thought on who to guard is scary, scary. And just when we broke up the Pondexter/Taurasi dynamic duo. When this Lynx team starts rolling on all cylinders, they are going to be hard to beat.

So now it is off to Phoenix and “Paul Ball.” If the Storm’s bench continues to be a non-factor in that game, then the result will be a Phoenix win I believe. Last year, the Mercury plan was to wear down the Storm and pull away at the end of the game. I can’t imagine that our starters will be able to play 32+ minutes at the Phoenix pace without dire consequences. And if our bench can’t match the Mercury bucket for bucket early, it could become a blow out. Let’s hope Coach Agler has something up his sleeve and Diana has one of her cold shooting nights.